Royal Navy medic receives Military Cross at Buckingham Palace

Despite shrapnel wounds to his leg and face, Medical Assistant (MA) Liam O'Grady ran across open ground while grenades were exploding around him to drag his stricken patrol sergeant to safety. He gave immediate lifesaving treatment to the commander who had severe wounds to his chest and abdomen before going on to stabilise three other wounded colleagues. Only after the commander had been extracted by helicopter and he had helped carry the other casualties 800 metres uphill through hostile territory did MA O'Grady allow his own wounds to be treated. MA O'Grady is now based on board Plymouth warship HMS Sutherland. He had been in the Royal Navy for just two years when he was sent on his first deployment to Afghanistan and attached to an Army patrol occupying Checkpoint Richka, a tiny compound in the Green Zone of the Upper Gereshk Valley. He has now fully recovered from his ...